What's Trending

Search

I always seem to have a small following of patients who have fallen through the cracks of health insurance coverage. My practice policy is “No Financial Barriers to Care.” In other words, we take care of them and provide care according to their needs. Dean was a perfect example of a patient falling through the cracks. He presented in my office seven years ago with a crushed foot. He was trying to move a bull into a corral and a beast that weighed around 800 pounds stepped on his left foot.

Foot blisters are among the most common injuries for athletes. According to research from the Scholl, over 5.2 million people suffer blisters every year. In a study of lower extremity injuries that occurred at the New York City Marathon, the most common foot problems reported were acute shear and stress injuries resulting in blister formation. Aside from being painful, blisters can alter an athlete’s running form and lead to even more serious injuries of the leg and hip due to irregular gait biomechanics.

There may be some good news in regard to amputation rates in patients with diabetes in the United States.

A recent study in Diabetes Care found that nontraumatic lower extremity amputation rates have decreased in patients with diabetes over age 40.1 Lin and colleagues found the amputation discharge rate per 1,000 people with diabetes was 3.9 in 2008 — down from 11.2 in 1996.

We use tape for many conditions. We use tape to illustrate what custom orthotic support might feel like. We use tape to rehabilitate plantar fasciitis. Typically, however, we do the taping as opposed to teaching our patients how to tape themselves.

I do not know about you but I continue to find myself wondering who are these so-called wound care specialists who undertake management of wounds but are nowhere to be found when bad wounds take a turn for the worse.